A known control device disclosed in the German patent publication 103 04 324 A1 of this type comprises a distributor fitted on a control module, said distributor being fitted with power modules in the form of electrically operable control valves and comprising a modularly designed electrical concatenation strand, which connects the drives of the control valves with the control module. The concatenation strand serves to communicate the control signals responsible for the actuation pattern of the control valves to the electrical drives of the control valves. The concatenation strand may be employed also for the application of the operating voltage necessary for the operation of the valve drives.
A control device with a similar design is also described in the German patent publication 103 16 129 A1.
Owing to the energy requirement necessary for the actuation of the control valves the control device may only be fitted with a restricted number of power modules. If it is a question of power modules requiring a particularly high actuating power, and for instance proportional valve, the design of the control device is even further restricted. To implement complex control tasks it is consequently extremely frequently necessary to provide for the parallel use of several control devices, involving a correspondingly heavy financial expenditure, because as a rule a separate electronic control module is required in each case.